Château Belle-Vue Petit Geste 2022

Sauvignon Blanc and Viognier: high-altitude freshness, white flowers and orchard fruit.

Petit Geste began with a simple idea: to make a bright, refreshing white at an estate better known for its reds. Its name means “small gesture” and recalls the wine’s modest beginnings, when the first harvest yielded just 350 bottles. The estate also shares a very practical anecdote: the village birds developed a taste for perfectly ripe Sauvignon Blanc grapes, making harvest something of a race.

The blend of Sauvignon Blanc and Viognier brings together two complementary profiles: the former’s freshness and citrus notes, and the latter’s floral character and white-fruit aromas. Petit Geste shows pear, white peach and floral notes, with a rounder texture than a classic Sauvignon Blanc. The vineyard’s altitude provides the setting for grape ripening in a climate marked by dry summers.

In Bhamdoun, high in the Mount Lebanon mountains, Naji Boutros set out to revive his family’s vineyards in the early 2000s, planting the first vines in April 2000 among the ruins of his great-grandfather’s former hotel. Château Belle-Vue farms terraced vineyards at elevations of 950–1,250 metres, on clay-limestone soils in a climate characterised by dry summers. The estate follows organic farming practices, avoids herbicides and pesticides, hand-harvests its grapes and relies on indigenous yeasts for fermentation. Its three principal wines explore distinct blends of international grape varieties, shaped by Lebanon’s mountain conditions.